It’s Labour’s flaws not Brown’s

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The next crisis could be fatal for the PM. But his party has no idea what it stands for

Roy Jenkins once said that Tony Blair had a second-class intellect but a first-class temperament. In prime ministers, he added, character matters more than brains. Few doubt Gordon Brown’s intellect, but increasingly Labour MPs wonder if he has the right temperament for the top job. The character questions are not fading, but intensifying.

When Mr Blair was still in Downing Street, he used to refer, privately, to the “temperament issues” with his successor. It could have been worse - one former Brown aide recalls that when they were both young MPs, Tony used to stand behind Gordon pointing at his head